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Hollyleaf's Story/Chapter 1
Chapter description :Hollyleaf races into the tunnels, just as thunder crashes over her head, causing the tunnel to collapse onto her. Her claws rip as she struggles frantically, but the debris is too heavy and she lets darkness sweep over her. :She dreams that she is standing on the edge of a cliff above ThunderClan's burning camp. She's trapped with Lionblaze and Jayfeather as the fire inches closer. The warrior Ashfur blocks their only escape and Squirrelflight is beside him. Squirrelflight tells Ashfur that this was enough and tells him that the other cats have done nothing to him and hisses for him to do whatever he wanted with her, and to just let Lionblaze, Hollyleaf, and Jayfeather out to safety. Ashfur retorts that Squirrelflight doesn't understand, adding that he wanted her to feel the same pain he felt when Squirrelflight chose Brambleclaw over him. Squirrelflight then tells him to kill the other cats, adding that it wouldn't hurt her due to the fact that she wasn't even their real mother. Hollyleaf thinks that there was no way that she could let Ashfur reveal her heritage because she and her littermates would be driven out and that their whole lives to this point would mean nothing. :Hollyleaf regains consciousness and silence overwhelms her. She notes that pain is stabbing in one of her legs. She realizes that she's been buried alive and starts whipping around trying to break free. Her head breaks free and she calls out into the dark, suddenly realizing that she had no Clanmates to help her now and Lionblaze and Jayfeather probably thought she had died in the rockfall. She thinks that it could be better this way if they thought she was dead, her brothers wouldn't come looking for her. :Hollyleaf has another flashback to the WindClan border as she stalks her Clanmate Ashfur. As he reaches the bank of the stream, Hollyleaf springs and tears into his throat. She thinks that this is the only way to protect her secret and she lets his body fall to the stream. Hollyleaf lets the water wash the blood from her paws and thinks that she did this for her Clan. :Hollyleaf pushes the images from her mind and she pushes away the rest of the stones that are trapping her. Pain shoots through one of her hind legs and she wonders if it's broken. She pictures the well-stocked medicine den back at the camp and she remembers that comfrey would help mend the bone and poppy seeds would help her sleep through the pain. She remembers that there are other ways out of the tunnels and she knows that she has to follow the tunnel until she finds a source of light. She has another flashback as Leafpool, the ThunderClan medicine cat, tells her that she is Hollyleaf's mother. Hollyleaf is in shock, she wonders how it was possible and she realizes that her birth was worse than a loner or rogue's birth; her birth had broken the warrior code. :She unsheathes her claws so she can get a grip on the stone floor of the tunnel and realizes that some of her claws had already broken as she had escaped the cave-in. She smells blood and pictures herself leaving a trail of blood down the tunnel. She fears that if Lionblaze and Jayfeather dug through the cave-in they could follow the trail to her. :Hollyleaf reminisces when Jayfeather had figured out who their father was, Crowfeather, of WindClan. Hollyleaf doesn't believe him, but he insists that the former ThunderClan medicine cat, Yellowfang, came to him in a dream and told him. Hollyleaf thinks that there's nothing left, her birth had broken the warrior code twice. She wanted to begin a new life far from the Clans away from lies and promises that had been broken. :She keeps going down the tunnel she wanted to fall to sleep and wait for a StarClan warrior, but she didn't know if they would take her. Her birth had been against the warrior code, she had killed another cat, and had left her place in ThunderClan. She wonders if they're watching her anymore and if they had been watching when she spilled her Clan's secrets at the last Gathering. :She once again has a flashback, this time of the last Gathering she had went to. She leaps to her paws and yowls that there's something she wants the Clans to hear. The Clans grow silent and she proceeds to tell them that Brambleclaw and Squirrelflight were not her parents. Brambleclaw asks what she was talking about and and asks Squirrelflight why she was talking such nonsense. Squirrelflight sadly replies that she's sorry, but what Hollyleaf said was true, they weren't her parents. Brambleclaw asks who was then and Squirrelflight turns to Hollyleaf and tells her to tell the Clans adding that she had kept the secret for moons and that she wouldn't let it out now. Hollyleaf calls her a coward and tells the Clans that Leafpool and Crowfeather were her parents. The Clans yowl in shock and anger and Hollyleaf shouts over them the blames Leafpool and asks how the Clan could survive when liars and cowards lived in the center of them. Hollyleaf wishes she could go back to that fateful Gathering and take back every word and secret she had spilled to spare her Clanmates the shock they had as she left. She asks herself what had she done. :The deep darkness was making Hollyleaf's eyes ache and she had been searching for one for so long that she started to imagine one ahead. She shakes her head to clear it and realizes that it is light ahead. She starts trying to go faster ignoring her pain and found the light seeping through a gap in the wall. She drags herself down the tunnel leading to the gap and she sees a cave opening ahead. In the heat of the moment, she tries to stand up, but her leg buckles under her weight and she collapses onto the stone floor. Characters Major }} Mentioned *Jayfeather *Squirrelflight *Ashfur *Leafpool *Crowfeather *Brambleclaw }} Notes and references Category:Hollyleaf's Story Category:Chapter subpages Category:Novellas